Happy Birthday ME!

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Ok, so it isn't REALLY my birthday, but I ordered myself a birthday present last night anyways. One of these:



The less competent among us will take a quick glance, then decide that this is just a regular old road bike.

The slightly more astute will recognize that there's something really odd looking about this particular road bike, and the most cycling-aware viewers will surely recognize what that oddity is and how it makes this bike special.

Then there will be the plain old cheaters, who will google the name on the bike and/or look at the URL of the image and find out what the heck I'm talking about. . .

Anyways, I'm excited! I've wanted one of these for a few years.

[spoiledcats]

Exactly how do you pedal that thing?

[Jeffrey Porter]

where are the brake and gear levers? actually where are the brakes?

[TheBimbo]

it looks like an older 10 speed w/o alot of the necessities...



Christy...

[batguano]

No brakes, direct drive single gear ratio, this is a bicycle that requires skill and discipline to ride. Good luck with the new toy, Dewizum. Happy Birthday when the day actually arrives!

[Jeffrey Porter]

stay out of San Francisco with that bike.

[dc]

Build your own....

[Nina51]

you need these...

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Batty is right, it's a fixed gear single speed bike.

Spoiledcats - most "serious" bikes don't come with pedals, since riders like to use their own - typically clipless pedals that allow you to clip-in to the pedal with a special shoe, kind of like a ski binding.

Jeffrey - It's single speed, so no gear shifting mechanicals are required. And since it's fixed, the pedals and the rear wheel cannot turn indepedently The pedals don't freewheel - i.e. you can't coast with the pedals resting still, anytime the bike is in motion the pedals WILL be turning. One implication of this is that your legs are turning 100% of the time you're moving, so it's a very different sort of workout than a typical bike. Another implication is that if you want to slow down, you just resist the pedal motion, which gives a braking effect on the rear wheel.

Even given that, most people that ride fixies on the street use a front brake for extra safety. I'll probably put one on once the bike gets here, I've got plenty of parts laying around from junk bikes.

dc - I barely have the time to ride any more, much less put my own bikes together. This is the first time I've bought an off the shelf bike in. . . . ever! Heck, it'll be the only bike in my fleet that doesn't have at least one set of wheels I built.

Now all I need to do is learn how to trackstand the thing! Hopefully I don't get too many bruises in the process.

[julianp]

Nice IRO! Looks like the geometry is perfect for tearing up the streets.

Ever checked out fixedgeargallery.com? The FGG forums are almost as addicting as ReefCentral forums.

I wish my bike was that nice. I've just got an old Nishiki sport frame and some formula track hubs. I'll never forget the fear that hit me when I first road it down the street after building it and habitually tried to "coast".

[limitedslip]

Please dont tell me you wear spandex and the funny helmet when you ride that thing.....

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Originally posted by limitedslip
Please dont tell me you wear spandex and the funny helmet when you ride that thing.....

No way, dude. Cool people don't wear helmets. It's way more awesomer to splatter your brains on the sidewalk than to be safe and protected! And who the heck would want to wear appropriate garb that was designed for a particular sport!

Nice IRO! Looks like the geometry is perfect for tearing up the streets.

Ever checked out fixedgeargallery.com? The FGG forums are almost as addicting as ReefCentral forums.

I wish my bike was that nice. I've just got an old Nishiki sport frame and some formula track hubs. I'll never forget the fear that hit me when I first road it down the street after building it and habitually tried to "coast".

The majority of my riding right now is done on tri/TT bikes, so I'm used to an incredibly steep position. This is actually gonna be really shallow and relaxed for me. I'll take a peek at FGG but the last thing I need is another set of forums to be addicted to!

I actually have an old Nishiki frame in the garage, but it's in really bad shape and kinda small for me. I have had it for a year or two and have been planning on converting it, but finally decided to just pull the trigger on this instead. The one I got was from their scratch and dent section (chainstay is scrached, no big deal) so it was nearly as cheap as a complete build kit would have been for the Nishiki.

It is scheduled for delivery on Monday, but I'll be on the road all week for work so it'll be until next weekend that I get to ride it.